EDITOR’S NOTE: Frankenstein Conquers the World was first on Chiller Theater on Saturday, October 12, 1968 at 11:20 PM. It also aired on January 31, 1970 and January 9, 1971.

Furankenshutain tai Chitei Kaijū Baragon (Frankenstein vs. Subterranean Monster Baragon) was directed by Ishirō Honda with special effects by Eiji Tsuburaya. It was released in the U.S. by American-International Pictures as Frankenstein Conquers the World.

Toho had always been interested in a movie about Frankenstein’s Monsters, even hoping to have him in a sequel to The Human Vapor in which Mizuno would revive the legendary monster to help him save his dead girlfriend Fujichiyo.

That didn’t happen.

In 1962, Toho purchased a script from an independent producer from America named John Beck called King Kong vs. Prometheus. Willis O’Brien was the real writing and the movie was to be called King Kong vs. Frankenstein. This was how Toho ended up working with RKO so that they could create the meta King Kong vs. Godzilla.

Two years later, Henry Saperstein wanted to co-produce Frankenstein vs. Godzilla with his company United Productions of America. In this idea, the heart of the original Frankenstein’s Monster would become radioactive and cause him to grow to the size of a kaiju. Toho chose to make Mothra vs. Godzilla as they didn’t like the logistics of the story and yet they came back to it in 1965.

I’m so happy that they did.

Nazi officers found the living heart of the Frankenstein Monster from send it on an Imperial Japanese Navy ship to a research facility in Hiroshima for further experimentation just in time for America to drop Little Boy.

Fifteen years later, that heart has grown into a feral child that eats small animals. He’s studied by Dr. James Bowen (Nick Adams) and his assistants Dr. Sueko Togami (Kumi Mizuno) and Dr. Ken’ichiro Kawaji (Tadao Takashima). They save him from a crowd of villagers and notice that the boy can’t be stopped by radiation. They soon figure out that he’s the Frankenstein Monster when they chop off his hand and it grows back.

As always in kaiju movies, one scientist does the wrong thing and the media causes the monster to go nuts. At least it battles and defeats Baragon just in time to get swallowed up by the ground. Of course, he could still be alive. Actually, he totally is and becomes two monsters in time for War of the Gargantuas, which may be my favorite kaiju film.

When I would watch this movie as a kid, I would get super hyperactive. If the extra ending that Harry Saperstein had been included where Frankenstein fought an octopus, I probably would have broken every chair in my parent’s house.

In Germany, this was a big deal. Released as Frankenstein: Terror with an Ape-Face, it’s the reason why every Godzilla — and even Kamen Rider — movie was released as a Frankenstein movie and had it explained in the dubbing that the monsters had been made by Dr. Frankenstein.

Note to self: Frankenstein is a kaijin, not a kaiju, which is a giant human not a giant monster.